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EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)Starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billie Dee Williams.
Directed by Irvin Kershner.
MPAA rating: PG
Few films in history have been so highly praised as George Lucas's The Empire Strikes Back. Equal parts gripping romance, space warfare, and spellbinding fantasy, Episode V is an obsession of critics, kids, and—gasp!—even the non sci-fi set of females. Opening shots introduce a completely new location in the Star Wars universe: the remote, sub-freezing planet Hoth where fledgling Jedi Luke (Mark Hamill) is nearly maimed by a fierce Wampa. Sparks fly between Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), ever ready to give a mock expression or clever one-liner. As to the Empire--following their embarrassing defeat (in A New Hope), they ready a ground assault after scanning the galaxies and locating the Rebels' hidden base.
Pressuring one character to personify a film's evil force usually makes it come off phony and overextended. Decades after the fact, moviegoers know that Darth Vader (voice by James Earl Jones) achieves this fear-provoking end. AT-AT walkers, the Imperials' hulking metallic beasts, obliterate the Rebel forces who struggle to escape stormtroopers under Vader's personal oversight. In a superbly creative manner, Director George Lucas arranges a private Millennium Falcon flight for Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Leia and Solo (still obligated to repay his debt to the grotesque Hutt, Jabba), as well as setting Luke on a course to be mentored by a Jedi Master. Crash landing in a swamp on the overgrown world of Dagobah, Skywalker comes upon a small, oddly humorous alien soon revealed to be Master Yoda (voice/puppeteering by the irreplaceable Frank Oz). Deepening the instruction that began with Obi-Wan Kenobi's memorable scenes in the original movie, viewers glimpse Jedi training for the first time, as the green midget spouts his now-renowned philosophy ("Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.") while Luke learns physical and mental disciplines. Meanwhile, the Imperials are in hot pursuit of Solo and Leia, who encounter a dinosaur-like creature living inside the very asteroid they land on. Both the prissy jabbering of C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels), and the running gag of Han's prized Millennium Falcon failing to reach lightspeed provide comic relief to the peril and enormity of these scenes.
"Wait--here's something: Lando." Administrator of the planet Bespin's breath-taking Cloud City, Lando Calrissian (Billie Dee Williams) truly steals the show, a gambler from Solo's past whose natural charm dispels any distrust. But bounty hunter Boba Fett had arrived first, striking a deal with Lando, and alerting the Empire to their presence. Fett, the quietest yet most popular Star Wars character ever, covertly sends Bepsin's location coordinates to Darth Vader, who comes face-to-face with the young couple in an effectively distressing scene. Back in the Dagobah mires, Luke sees an image through the Force of Han and Leia being tortured. Torn between finishing his Jedi training (and therefore losing his friends) or halting that education, Luke leaves intending to save Solo and the Princess--despite the disagreement of his Jedi teachers. The sinister Emperor had foreseen this weakness in "young Skywalker" and sent his personal apprentice Vader, setting an intricate ambush to lure Luke to the Dark Side of the Force. Opting to freeze Luke in carbonite for transport to the Emperor, the Sith Lord tests the freezing chamber on Han Solo, Boba Fett's live bounty for Jabba the Hutt. By this time, Lando has his doubts about the "deal" he struck with Darth Vader; one glance at Leia after Han's emotional yet successful transformation is all it takes to tide him over to the Rebels' side. Once the administrator makes an intercom announcement to the entire metropolis, the Cloud City uproar gives Leia, Lando, R2-D2 (Kenny Baker, the talented midget whose character seems to live on Luke's X-wing fighter) and Chewbacca (with a dismantled C-3PO on his back) the cover they need to reach the Millennium Falcon.
In the middle of this fray comes Luke, falling into the snare of his archenemy Darth Vader. He, after minutes of spectacular fighting around a deep chasm, abandons the objective of coaxing Luke to the Dark Side, and severs the young man's right hand with his lightsaber. As Luke dangles from the abyss, Vader makes a proposition so startling that Luke is stunned beyond belief. Watching these scenes is, in itself, stunning beyond belief, as the drama of it all grips one like a vice. Using his only means of escape, the young Jedi falls into the gulf before him, ending up hanging from Cloud City's underside, open to the planet's windy atmosphere. Using the Force, he calls Leia and she responds, picking Luke up in the Falcon. Safely back in Rebel ships, the movie ends with Lando and Chewie in the first stages of undertaking Han's rescue, and a black-and-blue Skywalker made whole again through the medical proficiency of famed android 2-1B, bringing in a ray of hope for the future. This core chapter of the Star Wars Trilogy is an immersing cinematic experience, leaving viewers suspended and wondering if it can get any worse as the Emperor tightens his grip on the galaxy. Cataclysmic and all encompassing, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a fixating thrill that has staid the test of many decades as George Lucas's masterwork.
- Josh Shepherd
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